PROPOSAL OF A RISK SCORE FOR RECURRENCE IN PATIENTS WITH CURATIVELY RESECTED GASTRIC-CANCER

In this study, 168 patients who underwent curative resection for gastr ic cancer with prognostic serosal invasion [ps(+)] and 150 without pro gnostic serosal invasion [ps(-)] were analyzed separately to determine the prognostic importance of clinicopathological factors, and identif y which patients were at high risk of recurrence. A multivariate analy sis of survival time using Cox's proportional hazard model revealed th e important prognostic factors to be: Lymph node involvement, the clas sification of gross appearance, macroscopic serosal invasion, and inte rstitial connective tissue in the ps(+) group, and lymph node involvem ent, macroscopic serosal invasion, and venous invasion in the ps(-) gr oup. We proposed a risk score of recurrence based on the results of a further multivariate analysis called Hayashi's Quantification Analysis II, in which recurrence was chosen as an objective variable and the a bove prognostic factors were chosen as explanatory variables. Eighty-f our percent of the patients with a score of 0 or higher in the ps(+) g roup and 83 % of those with a score of +6 or higher in the ps(-) group showed recurrence. Thus. we believe that this score is useful for ide ntifying those patients at high risk of recurrence, who should receive intensive chemotherapy even after curative resection.